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Iodine-131 Update 3

01 April 2011

The UK air monitoring data showing the very low levels of iodine-131 that have been detected across Scotland over the last few days are now available on the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) website here and will be updated weekly.

Rainfall over Scotland over the past days has now been analysed and has shown the presence of very low concentrations of iodine-131.

Initial analysis of routine grass samples collected in the North of Scotland has revealed very low levels of iodine-131. Further analysis is being undertaken and the final results are expected early next week.

This was picked up during routine environmental monitoring around Dounreay. We are confident that this is not from the site itself because it has been detected at the same time as samples across Europe, and current site operations are highly unlikely to have released iodine-131 in the concentrations detected.

SEPA has provided this information to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) which is responsible for food safety. They confirm that at the levels found there is no risk to the food chain.

Notes to editors

Iodine-131 has a half life of eight days. This means that after eight days the activity will have dropped by 50%, after 16 days it will have dropped to 25%.